Todd Reeser
Director, Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies Program, and Professor of French
As the director of the newly renamed Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies (GSWS) Program at The University of Pittsburgh, I’m very pleased to offer on behalf of colleagues and students our annual newsletter covering much of what happened this year in the program. Our newsletter highlights select faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates, whose work in gender studies, we believe, will be of interest to a broad audience of readers. This is the first year that our newsletter is fully electronic, and our hope is that the new format will lead to a wider readership.
I myself have just completed my first year as director of the program, following in the illustrious footsteps of Jean Ferguson Carr who graciously led me through the ins-and-outs of the program before her departure. I have been involved in the program since I first came to Pitt, and am very happy to be even more deeply involved while “on loan” from my home department, French and Italian. I have the privilege of working with a deeply interdisciplinary group of faculty and students from across departments and disciplines.
A New Name
The Steering Committee, our governing body composed of faculty and students from across departments, has worked assiduously this year on a number of initiatives. The most visible change to the program is obvious: we have a new name! The discussion about a new name began about three years ago. The GSWS Steering Committee held a series of discussions on the topic, and decided to conduct a survey of undergraduates, graduates, and affiliated faculty about possible names. The results of that “data” was presented to the committee, and after serious and substantial discussion, “Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies” was proposed and received a unanimous vote. It was widely felt that the program needed to continue showing its commitment to the feminist tradition, which was the impetus for the program over 40 years ago, while at the same time including the umbrella term “gender” as well as “sexuality” as a distinct wing of the program. I submitted the request for a name change in September (available to view on our program history page). The request was approved by the Provost in the spring term, and it became effective on May 1. Students have told me over and over again during the past semester how much they appreciate a name that reflects the variety of interests and helps position the program as cutting-edge. Our Web site has been revamped to reflect the new name and will continue to be revamped this fall (see www.gsws.pitt.edu).
With this “umbrella” approach to gender studies, we have created a series of new courses, including an upper-level course on masculinity and a new core course called Sex and Sexualities, developed very expertly by visiting instructor Julie Beaulieu (see Beaulieu article). We have transformed our introductory course to present a variety of key concepts taken from masculinity studies, transgender studies, and queer studies while continuing to introduce the areas of women’s and feminist studies. This course includes a variety of innovative projects (see Wentworth article). Next year, we will be offering a new course on gender and sustainability as part of Pitt’s commitment to a green campus. Introduction to Feminist Theory continues to be our largest undergraduate course, attracting all types of students from across campus. Our core graduate course called Theories of Gender and Sexuality continues to attract a large, interdisciplinary audience (see Goodkind and Brush article). This year, we offered graduate seminars on feminist theory and on masculinities. A significant move in our program was our submission of a proposal for a GSWS major (see Cohen article). Over the years, many students have told us that while they appreciate our certificate, they would like a more substantial credential for graduate school or job applications. We hope to offer the new major beginning in fall 2015.
Research and Events
A new feature of our program is a series of events on a given topic. The topic for this past academic year was “Gender and the Global,” and we hosted 23 events over the course of the year. While exhausted from all the work of preparing and executing these events, we were energized again and again by reading groups, teaching discussions, and the visits of cutting-edge external scholars who came to Pitt. The only problem with some of these events was that they were standing room only. Uma Narayan from Vassar College attracted an overflow crowd and gave a provocative lecture on women and microcredit. Aren Aizura from Arizona State filled the lecture hall with a talk on transgender Thailand. Anthropologist Martin Manalansan from the University of Illinois regaled students and faculty with a talk on gender, dwelling, and precarity. David Paternotte offered a lecture on transnational gay marriage for which we wish we had procured a larger room (see Creasap article). We also hosted a series of workshops for faculty, staff, and students on transgender issues with Justin Adkins from Williams College.
Planning is already underway for next year’s events, which will fall under the broad topic of “Embodiment,” and will include a major conference on Reproductive Health, Rights, Access and Action in March. These events are integral to the creation of an interdisciplinary intellectual community, and they help faculty and students know what kind of cutting-edge work is being undertaken outside of Pitt.
Our faculty and students continue to do exciting work in gender studies on campus, around the globe, and in the community as they put theory into practice in a variety of ways and work for social justice in the areas of gender and sexuality. Many of the articles in this newsletter highlight that work.
And Finally…
A final piece of GSWS news is that we are moving from the second floor of Posvar Hall to the fourth floor of the Cathedral of Learning in August. The new space offers a host of advantages and reflects the growth of the program over the past few years, including a second seminar room.
Because all this exciting work requires funding and because academic budgets are tightening all over these days, I would invite you to support our program by making a donation through our secure website. We need funds to support student paper prizes, student research grants, visits from external scholars, and our annual Iris Marion Young award for political engagement. We dream of one day hosting a research center for gender, sexuality, and women’s studies at Pitt.
I invite you to enjoy all the stories in our e-newsletter, and to stay in touch with us at gsws@pitt.edu. Do not hesitate to contact me at reeser@pitt.edu. If you are an alum, we would love to hear your news.
Cordially,
Todd Reeser